Vegetable cleaner



May 27, 1924. 1,495,758

H. W. MEYER VEGETABLE CLEANER Filed y 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. fif/vfir W Min-76 A TTORNEYS.

H. W.- MEYER VEGETABLE CLEANER May 27 1924. 1,495,758

Filed May 7, 1923 2 Sheets-Shae g III! III IlII/l I Z0 ATTORNEYS Patented May 27, 1924.

team earent ent ce.

HENRY WILLIAM MEYER, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

VEGETABLE CLEANER.

Application filed May 7,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY WILLIAM MEYER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Indianapolis, county of Marion, and State of Indiana, have invented a'certain new and useful Vegetable Cleaner; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, in which like numerals refer to like parts.

This invention relates to a machine for removing earth and the like from vegetables, etc., and is chiefly of service to the truck farmer and hot house producer.

The chief object of the'invention is to provide a machine which is adapted to clean vegetables having tuberous roots and not injure the same, or the vegetation in so do- 1ng.

A further object of the invention is to' provide a machine which is adapted to clean the vegetables, whether presented individually to the machine or in bunches, it being understood that it is now the practice to bunch small vegetables, either by hand or by machines. I 1

A third object of the invention is to provide a machine at which the operator can scribed.

The chief feature of the invention, in addi-. tion to the accomplishment of the foregoing objects, is the provision of means where by universal adjustability is provided in the mounting and drive of the scrubbing rollers.

Another feature of the invention consists" in the adjustability of the guard and cover constructions. I

The full nature of this invention willbe understood from the accompanying drawings and the following descriptions and claims.

In the drawings Fig. l is a front eleva 'tional view of the machine with the cover removed and a portion of the parts shown in section to show the same in detail. Fig,

. 2 is a side elevational view of the mechanism for driving the scrubbing rolls and the mounting of the same. Fig. 3 is a similar view et thesime parts but-with the scrubbing rolls she-ea ifia se arated relation; Fig.- 4. is an emerged at elevatienei 1 Shaft .havin ported in? te hraelaet' bearing 15 and. fits;

1923. Serial No. 637,1?5.

truck farmers and hot house producers to clean vegetables such 1 as beets, radishes, onions, turnips and-celery by swishing around in a tank the individual vegetable.

or a bunch of the same, and this is a tedious process, and in fact consumes a great deal of time of the vegetable grower. Another L-method heretofore employed has been to position all the bunches or individual vegetables rn'a cask containing water and elther 'stir'the contents or rotate thecask or barrel and then remove the vegetabletherefrom. This likewise "is tedious and does not leave the leaves and stalks in a condition wherein they will stand a reasonable and necessary amount of storage, and deterioration of the same seriously affects the retail price of the product. I a

The present machine, therefore, is adapted to clean'that portion ofYthe vegetable which shouldbe cleaned and in a manner which will ermitsuchcleanin' withoutabradin or otherwise damaging the edible portion of the vegetable, aridat'the same time not operate upon the leaves and stalks, leavutilize both hands for presenting the article to be'cleaned and thus shorten the time by" one half in which it has been necessary heretofore to clean articles of the character de ing them in their natural state and thus insure. that the same will stand the necessary amount of storage." This machine alsopermits the' cleaner to use both hands and simultaneously present bunches of vegetables to be cleaned to the scrubbing rollers, and thus the time consumed is :further reduced by half. a

In the drawings indicates a rectangular framework and 11 indicates a tank of suitable material upon. which the framework is mounted and which supports the same. The tank preferably contains a cleaning liquid such as water 12 and suitable means for supplying said tank, and draining means for the same may be provided if desired. The framework supports a pair of brackets at itsupper edges and herein said brackets are indicated'by the numeral 13 and provide two-rectangularly positioned bearings 14: and 15; In thebearings 14 is rotatably supported a driving shaft 16' and upon said drivingf'shaftis supported .a pair of bevel gears 17 Each of the bevelgearsl'l meshes with the bevel gear'l8icarried by a screw its upper end rotatably supapertured at 22 and are threaded to engagelower end rotatably supported in a suitable bearing 19. This shaft is herein indicated by the numeral 20 and is reversely threaded, as shown. The shaft 20 supports two supporting blocks 21 which are longitudinally tions to move the pairs of blocks on each of 's'aid'screw shafts in parallel relation towards and away from each other as desired. Positioned Within the framework is upper scrubbing roll 26" anda lower scrubbing roll27, the former being superimposed upon the latter. These rolls preferably are circular in cross section and includebristles of suflicient strength to remove earth from the vegetable, but notof suffi'cient strength to abrade or otherwise injure the vegetable.

The roll 26' is supported u'pon a shaft 28 and the roll 27 is supported upon the shaft 29. The shafts 28 and 29 are similarly supported in suitablebearing blocks and the same is illustrated in detail in Figs; 1 to 6 inclusive, and reference will now be had thereto and such description, it will be understood, will suffice for an understanding of the four bearings provided. The supporting block 21 is provided with a toothed or serrated face 30 and said face also is provided with two threaded recesses 31, which support suitable adjusting bolts 32. The adjusting bolts are positioned in longitudinal slots 33 of a bearing block 34: having a com plementarily toothed or serrated face 35 for engagement with the serrated face 30 of the supporting block 21. Thus, the bearing block 3 1 is adapted to be rigidly secured to the supporting block 21 in the desired position. The bearing block 34 provides a bear ing 36 for the shaft 29 and a bearing cap 37 suitably secured by the cap securing bolt 38 to said bearing block 3 1 rotatably supports the shaft 29 therein.

The operation of the hand wheel 25 will cause the upper and lower supportingbloc ks upon the parallel screw shafts 20 to zi proach or recede from each other and thus the desired or necessary distance b'etween the rolls 26 and 27 may be secured. The provision of the adjustabil-it'y of the mounting of the bearing block upon the supporting block is to provide for brush wear; When in service the diameter thereof will decrease, and with such decrease the lower r0112? may be so reduced the? the bristles thereof will not-engage :i the iquid 12.1mm tank 11. The arena-aid adjustable mounting; of

brushes or sets rolls the bearing block insures that the lower roll will always engage the liquid. To compeu sate for the wearing of the upper roll, which is about the same as the lower roll, the bear ing blocks thereof are shifted approximately twice the shifting or adjustment provided for the lower pair of bearing blocks, because the two rolls are separated from each other by the double wear thereof.

Reference will now be had particularly to Figs. 1, 2 and 3 wherein the means for driving the rolls is illustrated. In said hi gs. each of the shafts 28 and 29 is extended at the same end and carries a pulley 39 and 10 respectively. A belt 41 connects said pulleys and in order to provide for the necessary belt extension when the shafts are in the separated, position, as hereinbefore described, the belt is elongated and there is provided a tension pulley 12 rotatably supported on a block 13 slidably supported in a bracket 4A having the inclined slot 15. A suitable tens'i'on spring 46, which is stronger than the frictional force necessary to' causc the belt to drive the pulley, is also provided and associates the bracket 44 and the sliding block Q3 together, in the well known manner. A hand wheel 47 is provided, and herein is shown associated with the other end of the shaft 39 and drives the belt. Suitable provision, however, is made for power driving and in this event the hand wheel 17 previously described, is utilized in starting to remove the starting load from the power source. Herein the framework 10 supports a motor frame 48 and the motor 19 drives the shaft 50 carrying a driving pulley 51, in turn driving a belt'52. The belt 52 engages a pulley 53 upon an extension of the shaft 28, as shown. It will be remembered that when the shaft 28 is rotated, either through the aforesaid power means'or through the hand wheel 47, the shaft l7 will likewise be rotated, and thus the'rolls 26 and 27 will rotats in opposite directions, that is towards each other at their nearest peripheries.

A suitable tension device for the belt 52 includes a pivotally supported. arm 54 which carries a tension pulley 55 pivotally supported thereby. A tension spring 57 is associated with the arm 54., and maintains the ullev in frictional en agement with the v b e.

chamber with a lateral aperture in its front face, which a erture is parallel to th which is apertured, has a portion of the material forming the same turned inwardly at 59, and downwardly at 60, to form a shelf and guide as well as a splash guard. Adjacent the aperture thus formed, and slidably supported by the framework, as well as adjustably supported thereby, is a splash guard and support 61. A cover for the aperture includes two sections 62 and 63 which are hinged together at 64: and are hingedly supported at 65 to the front face adjacent the aperture. A handle 66 is positioned upon both sides of the section 63. When the machine is in use, the section 62 lies parallel to the front face and the section 63 lies upon the top of the machine and thus is out of the way.

The invention claimed is:

1. A vegetable cleaner including a frameworkhaving a lateral aperture therein, a pair of oppositely rotating scrubbing rolls supported in superposed relation within said frame work and with their axes parallel to each other and the lateral aperture, a tank associated with said framework, means for adjustably supporting the lower brush in said tank, and additional means for adjusting said rolls in the desired positions in engagement with each other or at the desired distance therebetween and for rigidly supporting the same in the framework.

2. A vegetable cleaner including a framework having a lateral aperture therein, a pair of oppositely rotating scrubbing rolls with their axes parallel to each other and the lateral aperture, and a closure for said aperture comprising a plurality of hingedly connected sections, whereby said closure is adapted to lie adjacent the apertured side of said framework and upon the top thereof.

3. A vegetable cleaner including a framework having a lateral aperture therein, a pair of oppositely rotating scrubbing rolls with their axes parallel to each other and the lateral aperture, and an inwardly and downwardly directed lower guard adjacent said aperture and. said lower roll.

l. A vegetable cleaner including a framework having a lateral aperture therein, a pair of oppositely rotating scrubbing rolls with their axes parallel to each other and the lateral aperture, and an upper guard within the framework and adjacent the aperture and the upper roll.

5. A vegetable cleaner including a framework having a lateral aperture therein, a pair of oppositely rotating scrubbing rolls with their axes parallel to each other and the lateral aperture, an upper guard within the framework and adjacent the aperture and the upper roll, and an inwardly directed lower guard adjacent said aperture and said lower roll.

6. A vegetable cleaner including a framework having a lateral aperture therein, a pair of oppositely rotating scrubbing rolls with their axes parallel to each other and the lateral aperture, an upper guard within the framework and adjacent the aperture and, the upper roll, and means for adj ustably supporting said upper guard.

7 A vegetable cleaner including a framework having a lateral aperture therein, a pair of oppositely rotating scrubbing rolls with their axes parallel to each other and the lateral aperture, an upper guard within the framework and adjacent the aperture and the upper roll, an inwardly and downwardly directed lower guard adjacent said aperture and said lower roll, and means for adj ustably supporting said upper guard.

8. A vegetable cleaner including a framework, a pair of rotating scrubbing rolls supported within said framework 'with their axes parallel to each other, a single power means upon said framework, means associated with each of said rolls and said single power means for rotating said rolls, and manually operable means associated with said rolls substantially as and for the purpose described.

9. A vegetable cleaner including a framework, a pair of rotating scrubbing rolls supported within said framework with their axes parallel to each other, power operable means upon said framework, a driving pulley asociated with each roll, another pulley associated with one of said driving pulleys, belt means connecting said power means and said second mentioned pulley, belt means connecting said first mentioned pulleys, tension means associated with each belt means, and means for independently adjusting the brushes with respect to each other and said frame work.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto affixed my signature.

HENRY WVILLIAM MEYER. 

